Painting roses, and how to paint dew drops within the petals.

Well, we will have to keep this page our secret. Why? Painting the rose can be difficult enough, and there are lots of examples throughout the site, but with this example, I'm showing you a bit more.

You see, my web guru suggested, strongly, that I pull some of my
secrets as I was giving a bit too much away. At one point I had a
complete page dedicated to painting dew drops on the site.

As this is
probably one of my signature aspects within my work, and is discussed in
great detail within my ebook and DVD, I was taking away any incentive for folks to get the eBook.

It's
a difficult task to balance, so as to not disappoint my guru, but yet
give you the information you need to be successful with your painting, I
will shed some more light on the subject, but I won't "throw out the
baby with the bath water" if you know what I mean.

Above we see the gray layer completed, and we begin our color layers. below you can see I've toned a large portion of the canvas with the greens found on the petals. I've also laid in the colors for what will be my dew drops on this petal.

Remember, these colors need to match the surrounding shadow areas.

Using light touches with the blending brush and mop brush in the direction of the contour painted, you see the beginnings of our special features.

Using the mop brush, in painting roses.

Below, I have added the highlights within each drop. Close observation of your subject will guide you as to where exactly to place these. I discuss them further within the e-book of some of the laws of nature that will be found in the majority of your dew drops.

Again, very light touches and blending to the highlights on the back side of each drop. The sharp highlight facing the light will not be blended.

Taking a view further away from the painting, showing how this part of the painting is very close to completion.

To see more of this painting, check out the Gallery page. I have several close-ups that will help you visualize the process and understand just how realistic you can paint using oil paints.

If you've created an oil painting or are painting roses also, include them here on the "your oil painting tips" section of the site. Your fellow artists love to see your work, and so do I. It really is amazing to see the quality of craftsmanship that come from folks following the Flemish technique.